Description
3 Days | May 30, 31 and June 1| 9:30am -3:30pm
Instructor: Shelly Miller Leer
Materials you need: Students bring: chair, foam, fabric and extra embellishments.
Spaces available: 5
This is a new and improved 3 Day Upholstery Bootcamp. It’s the 2025 Comeback Tour. I took time off to become a grandma to two baby girls living on opposite sides of the country. Obviously, I couldn’t stay away for long. I’m back!
In this dandy pop up studio I’m using, I have room for 5 Bootcampers. This hands-on studio workshop-the original 3 Day Upholstery Bootcamp™ started over ten years ago in my previous space, not far from this studio. It’s been an upholstery intensive EVERYONE loves. It’s drawn students from coast to coast, and only gets better as the years go on. So, get ready to roll up your sleeves and get handy, crafty, and empowered. Yes, there are some power tools involved! You’ll not leave this course as the same person who walked in the door. I believe in providing much more than upholstery instruction. You’ll dig deep to discover the joy and uplifting effect of using your own two hands to tear your chair down to the bare bones and rebuild it, step by step. Besides your finished chair, you’ll get filled up full with the communal aspect of sharing this journey with other creative women. Research has shown that working with our hands, creating, and finding our FLOW is proven to be a calming and restorative process. You’ll feel it right away.
Besides learning these handcraft skills to redesign and recreate chairs, Upholstery Bootcamp provides a creative, inspiring, fun, encouraging space to plan, design, problem solve, fail and succeed. It has everything that provides a practical and soul-nourishing reset for the modern woman. Don’t take my word for it, come and experience the tactile, authentic, challenging and therapeutic benefits of this centuries old craft. Take note: it’s not for the weak or timid.
My students are typically motivated go-getters who are always looking to learn new skills. This gem of a workshop appeals to DIY-ers, interior designers, lawyers, professors, accountants, entrepreneurs, CEO’s, doctors, and the hardest profession of all- MOMS! One big caveat is that students must be amenable to listening and following instructions. It’s your project, but having facilitated hundreds of students, live and online, this tested curriculum provides the most conducive guidelines to set you up for success.
If new furniture becomes outrageously expensive, you’ll have the skills to spruce up your digs with your own two hands.
I am thrilled beyond belief to have the use of this big, open, bright and roomy space on the ground floor of a lovely carriage house. You’ll have all the space and tools you need to really dig into your project. New friends, new skills, treats, handwork, a redesigned chair–it’s a five pronged winning weekend.
Expect: 3 days of intense upholstery instruction, laughs, chit-chat and don’t forget the inner calm that comes over you once you drop into your FLOW state. Sign up with a friend and make it a hard-working creative, retreat, or just come by yourself for a restorative (literally) weekend to meet new, like minded people and then be as free as the wind to do whatever you want in the later afternoons and evenings. Over the years, many women have used this workshop as a time to take a pause from their day-to-day lives and rediscover their love of making, creating, communing with others while transforming an old and discarded chair into a one-of-a-kind, tangible piece of self-expression.
Words I’ve heard to describe Bootcamp: authentic, fun, exhausting, challenging, rewarding, fulfilling, satisfying, frustrating, hard, creative, like nothing else, friendly, funny, therapeutic, yummy and more.
You better be prepared–this is no spa retreat where you’ll get pampered and massaged. It’s a roll-up-your-sleeves and get busy renewing one of the best inventions of all time–the chair. It’s for can-do women who aren’t afraid to get mighty real with your own two hands.
There’s no wimpiness in upholstery!
Bootcamp is a joy to experience as long as you bring the kind of chair that sets you up for success. Read very carefully how you can get the most out of this, possibly life-changing, intensive workshop.
WHAT YOU’LL GET:
You’ll get 15 hours of hands-on upholstery instruction from me, Shelly Miller Leer, (read bio here), fabric layout, cutting, demos, fun, afternoon coffee breaks and crumpets (not really crumpets), simple chair repairs, how to estimate and choose fabric yardage, good music (subjective) and everything else that goes into reupholstering your own chair including template making, foam cutting (great power tool for this), foam beveling, measuring, cutting and attaching dacron, and finally, fabric smoothing and attachment. It’s not as easy as Pinterest wants you to believe.
FUN, FUN, FUN! If you’re traveling from out-of-town, you’ll need to make hotel or Airbnb accommodations. Contact us for information about good places to stay. We are fortunate to have the use of a nice big white studio on the ground floor of a fabulous carriage house on a stunning property in the Meridian Kessler area of Indianapolis. No stairs to climb. You can unload chairs right into the studio.
Many of our students come from different parts of the country for a Girls’ Getaway Weekend, some have come for a Mother/Daughter Weekend, and most just come for a quiet, productive Me-Time Getaway. Not only do you leave with a custom reupholstered chair, you meet new people, learn new skills and make memories that last. There’s something very special about being with other like minded people, doing what you love, and working with your hands. All I can say is that I see it over and over again–these workshops are full of creative freedom, both therapeutic and practical.
I provide: standard tool use, specific upholstery tool use, staples, nails, tacks, foam adhesive, upholsterer’s grade dacron batting, welt cord, handouts, resources, wood filler, sandpaper, furniture oil, wood glue, clamps, rags, jute webbing, jute twine, sewing machine, burlap, oodles of hands-on instruction. You’ll leave with a beautifully restyled chair and spankin’ new skills you can use forever, plus, a group of new friends.
You provide:
a pre-approved chair: Here are SAMPLES.
FOAM: Now, here’s the rub. I used to have students skedaddle on the first day after getting their chairs torn down to go to Joann to get foam and fabric. There are a few other fabric store options, but Joann is not our source of foam any longer. So, I have to change this part of the class. Once you register for the Bootcamp, I’ll contact each of you to determine your foam needs ahead of time so you can order foam online and have it in plenty of time for Bootcamp. So, don’t wait too long to find your thrifted, dumpster, attic, or FB Marketplace chair. We need some time to determine what you’ll need to order.
FABRIC: It’s preferable for you to purchase your fabric after we talk about upholstery fabrics. You can bring what you want to use, but if it doesn’t meet the criteria, be prepared to purchase fabric at one of our local fabric stores after getting your chair torn down on the first day. You’ll see what I’m talking about shortly after you start the upholstery process. Most of the pre-approved chair styles require at least 2.5 yards of fabric.
*This course is priced for one chair only. I don’t supply any materials for a second chair and I don’t provide any materials for you to take home with you.
Since the foam needs have changed, I must see a photo of your chair at least two weeks before Bootcamp. I’ll determine if it can be completed in this three day workshop.
No exceptions will be made. Click here to see some chair style ideas.
Three days isn’t very long to completely reupholster a chair.I promise, you’ll understand this afterwards.
Notice what the chair samples have in common–upholstered seat, inside back and outside back. No fully upholstered chairs or tufted pieces–it’s only 3 Days for Pete’s sake! Again, you’ll see what I mean after experiencing this for yourself.
Whether you’re more of a DIY-er who just wants to get better, or you’re doing your own small flipping business, the purpose is to focus on skills and techniques, to really think, process, and learn why and how things are done the way they are. If you just want a pretty chair, you’ll be missing the most valuable and important features of the weekend which is learning the upholstering techniques and practices that will enable you to create beautiful chairs with many spectacular fabrics throughout your life. It’s a creative lifeskill that can save you money, but also provide so much more.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday Schedule
9:30-12:30 Studio Work
12:30-1:30 Lunch Break
1:30-3:30 Studio Work (with a break somewhere in there for caffeine and delicious homemade desserts)
READ below AND our POLICY.
This 3 Day Workshop is intense, but fun and worth it. The curriculum is NOT designed for large, fully upholstered armchairs. See photo below for appropriate chairs. In order for you to get the most out of this 3 Day Workshop, you need be ready to work hard, watch, learn and have fun. We have to move through the process at a good clip. It’s preferable to bring a chair that does not need to be painted or have any structural repairs. We want you to leave with a basic understanding of how to reupholster an open armed side chair. What you learn will empower you with the confidence to gradually take on more complicated upholstered pieces. The focus in our Bootcamp is learning upholstery skills. Students occasionally get stalled out on one aspect of chair reupholstery, like folding a seat corner, for instance. They can get obsessed with a fold and waste precious time trying to get it perfect. It’s more important to watch a demo, take note, and then do your best and move on. Upholstery is not mastered in 3 days. It takes lots of practice. This is probably your fist time.
You need to come ready to listen, learn and follow instructions. You need strong hands, wrists and arms. Upholstery is physically demanding and students who aren’t strong enough come away without getting the full benefits of this intensive workshop. It’s tough, but worth the work and effort.
Come join us in this big, bright, fun studio. My previous students still contact me about how much they loved their Bootcamp weekend.
*READ CLASS POLICY BEFORE SIGNING UP. Again, once you register, there’s no refund, only class credits.
